8yo has to start business - alone

I almost put this on aibu but....My Y3 is doing some entrepreneur education, to raise money for charity.So far, fine. But she has been given £1 and told to go away and do it.I was 'well the school will set up little stalls for you and invite parents in' etc. But no. They are expected to go and invest the money (£1?) and bring back a return. Apart from telling us it's probably not a good idea to start selling stuff on high street and 'try and include people outside family' that's really it.I'm thinking well I'll just have to make cakes and sell them at work - but I can't see how that's going to be v educational for her at all. What would you do?

Haven't read the whole thread so not sure if this has already been suggested but they could make reindeer food. You should be able to make a few bags for £1. Just need a few envelopes, porridge oats and glitter. They could do some xmas drawings on the envelopes or make labels. Then reinvest on more stuff when you've sold the first few bags. 50p each?

I did this in year 4. Mind you I got £1 then and that was in the early 80s so a loan for stock could be a good idea.

I bought cheap soap and wrapped it in material with a ribbon and sold for about 4x cost.I bought cheep bath oil beads and put in little bags and sold at profit.I made lavender bags and filled with lavender from my garden - again sold for a lot more than it cost to make.We had lots of old ladies in the street - I was sent a few houses up/down my road without supervision and told not to go inside any house but mum was watching from our gate so she knew roughly which house I was at.

What's the time she's got available to do this - what she can do if she has got a week or two is very different from if she has to hand the money back in by christmas or easter or the end of the summer term...

Buy one and sell them all to her friends at school for 20p each. Make 15p profit on each one.

Persuade you to invest in several boxes of glowsticks - negotiate a minimal fee for lending her £4 so she can buy 5 boxes of glowsticks and then sell them at the school firework event (do they have one?) or christmas event.

I know at our infant school christmas bash they buy in job lots of glowsticks and sell them for about 40p each. Kids seem to go mad for them, especially when it's dark so think they would do really well at a fireworks night!

Say you were to take a 5p cut per £1 she borrowed from you, just thinking that say she were to do it for the firework party (our school one is next week) then she only has a limited opportunity to sell the bracelets thus needs to buy more to start with rather than being able to go back and get more if there is big demand.

Alternatively look on ebay (or in the pound shop) for things that sell in big quantities for a pound or two - like erasers or hair bobbles or biros - then sell them on to friends.

I think the earlier they start to get to grips with the financial realities of life the better. People with a good understanding of business, of economics, of personal finance etc

That way we won't raise another generation who take out massive loans without understanding what the interest actually is and who ask why if the government doesn't have enough cash, they can't just print more money

I'm with the market day and working in teams ideas. Kids who come from families like the one I grew up in are going to find this very very difficult - I think it's an inclusion issue.

Having said that, there are some brill ideas on this thread.

My 9 year old took enterprise week very seriously indeed and the following summar he starting busking. He has made over £120 doing this although I should deduct the costs of (i) the coffees I have to buy as I sit behind him and (ii) the loss of earnings because I can't work while I'm in the cafe for fear that someone will shout at me for letting him busk. It has only happened once but that was stressful. Though the shouter was a bit flummoxed when I explained "don't worry, it's all inspired by enterprise week"

Watch an episode of Antiques Road Trip together. Then take her to a car boot sale with her £1 in 5p pieces. Get her to find items to resell - doesn't have to be antiques - and haggle, haggle haggle. List items on ebay.

'I think homework ought to be something to solidify something being done in school'

How do you know that it isn't? Just because the school won't set up a 'market day' doesn't mean they haven't been working on this theme/project at school as well.

'more or less requiring the adult to lead and undertake the activity so that the child is seen to do the homework is questionable in terms of what it achieves'

Why would the OP need to 'lead and undertake the activity'? The OP's DD is year 3 i.e. 7 or 8 years old, not 3 years old, have you misread the OP? DC1 is in yr 3 and quite capable of coming up with an idea like this and carrying it out. Obviously I'd have to take her to the shop as she's too young to go by herself, but that's hardly an unreasonable request by the school. She would be able to make bracelets/packets of sweets/lucky dip/bookmarks etc by her self. I'd just need to supervise (not lead and undertake) the selling of whatever she'd made.

OP could your DD pair up with another child and put their money together? Have the school said this isn't allowed?

Government is pushing for business skills to be promoted in schools so just thinking about the challenge is a good exercise. Google 'schoolboy crawford cards' to see what can happen later if a business idea clicks.

Give her a business loan of a fiver. Take her shopping for materials. Have her make Christmas cards and sell them to family members for them to send at christmas. She then has to repay the loan out of the profits, plus interest.

She gets more money for the startup, in a legitimate way if the aim is to teach them about business - then securing additional start up funding is not cheating and she can get some reasonable materials so she has more stock. Reinvest the profit and make some more cards. I am sure grandparents, aunties and uncles and family friends would be happy to pay a few quid for a pack of christmas cards done by her.

I imagine it is a maths project (we've always run ours in groups with lots of guidance and supervision inside school). One group costed fruit for snack time and how much they had to sell each piece for to make a profit which was reinvested each day (with the teacher doing the shopping every night) for a week. Another group bought the materials and made friendship bracelets, another group made cup cakes ... A letter went home to parents of children not involved explaining there would be items for sale and the cost. Profits were used to provide a small treat for every child.

Sell at school drop off/ pick up times (when parents are there with money!). If children go to after school clubs - have them bring in money next day if they want one.

Fine if only one child is doing it, but as the whole class has been given the project, it might be rather annoying for parents being approached by a large number of kids selling things that they don't actually want to buy. It would be annoying even if it was a charity fund-raiser which this is not.